NPB Bullet Points: Imaoka Released, Williams Too?

by Patrick Newman (Sep 2, 2009)

In Japanese:

Amid rumors of his retirement, Hanshin has released infielder Makoto Imaoka.
Reportedly no other teams are interested in picking him up. Imaoka was
a big time contributor to Hanshin's Central League championships in
2003 and 2005, so if this is really the end of the road for him it's a
shame for him to go out this way.

Jeff Williams has headed back to the States
for arm surgery, but wants to return to Hanshin for next season: "the
decision was made about a week ago. Of course I want to avoid surgery
and it's not something I want to do, but I think surgery is the
direction we're going in. My goal is take the mound in a Tigers uniform
again next season." Despite Williams' productive seven-season run with
the Tigers, rumors persist that the team will not exercise their option
on his services for next season.

Yesterday on my morning commute, I happened to tune to NPR, where
Michael Krasny was discussing Japan's recent elections with a panel of
experts. My commute is 30 minutes so I only caught half of the program,
but it can be listened to online.